Military/Veterans (General/Chat)

Mr. Rex Tillerson is PERFECT for SOS! Insiders are saying that he's the guy! Guess we will see! Exon is a vast global company...with ties to everything. Mr. Tillerson know EVERYBODY.... and if President Trump is going to be the guy who "a rising tide floats all boats'... then this is a great 'tide' addition. Personal life Rex Tillerson is married and has four children. He resides in Irving, Texas. Mr. Tillerson is a devout Christian who attends Church and Bible study every week. Rex Wayne Tillerson (born March 23, 1952) is an American businessman and is the chairman, president,...

The family of a Vietnam veteran says they are upset after they feel their loved one is being disrespected. The Vietnam War was controversial, and a lot of the soldiers were met with disgust when they returned to American soil. David Ryan was one of those veterans. Ryan’s daughter says when he returned back to the United States, a man called him a murderer and a ‘baby killer.’ Those words stuck with her father for the rest of his life. In his obituary, Ryan wanted to clear the air and put to rest those hurtful words from decades ago. However,...

A man who died early Monday morning after being shot by a security guard has been identified. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office has identified the man as 25-year-old Davon O'Keith Wiley. The ME report says he died of multiple gunshot wounds. According to Wiley's Facebook page he was an engineer for the U.S. Army and an intake worker at Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis. The U.S. Army confirmed Wiley entered the Army Reserves in 2012. Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis would not confirm Wiley's employment, despite multiple attempts. Wednesday afternoon two of Wiley's family members...

President-elect Donald Trump has selected retired Marine general John F. Kelly as secretary of homeland security, officials familiar with the decision said Wednesday, recruiting a third former member of the military’s brass to serve at the highest levels of his administration.

This month, Mel Gibson nabbed a nomination for best director from the Broadcast Film Critics Association. The last we saw Gibson directing, a Mayan priest was tossing heads down the pyramid steps in Apocalypto. In the decade since, he has lost his own head a few times, suffering tequila-induced tirades and effectively achieving for himself excommunication from the Church of Hollywood. Such is perhaps for the best, as it provides for him the freedom to make films that rise above the swirling box office toilet bowl of superhero spandex, toy trolls, and incomprehensible Harry Potter spin-offs. Gibson's latest, Hacksaw Ridge,...

World War II veteran Don Graves was just a teenager when he heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor, he was listening to President Roosevelt’s speech on the radio. “Here we are, the three of us, same neighborhood: Detroit, Michigan,” said 91-year-old Graves while pointing to a picture of three young men in military uniforms. “The music was playing then all of a sudden it stopped and it said ‘we interrupt this broadcast, the President of the United States will now address the nation,’” said Graves. It was that speech that inspired Graves to enlist. “I said, ‘I’m going to...

Retired Marine Sgt. R.V Burgin, of Lancaster, documented his service in World War II in the book "Islands of the Damned." The 75th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attacks brings back vivid memories for a North Texas retired Marine sergeant. R.V. Burgin was in Dallas that day, but he says the attacks influenced his decision to join the military. "I remember the radio. I was listening to the radio and that was all that was on: Pearl Harbor," Burgin said. Burgin began his military service a short time later, in 1942. And he spent much of his time in the...

George Elliott was one of two servicemen manning a radar station on Oahu the morning of Dec. 7, 1941. When he reported a huge sighting on his radar screen, he was ignored.At 2 a.m. on April 1, 2001, I was sitting at my computer in my Laguna Beach condo working on a website I’ve long since forgotten when an email popped up with nothing in the subject line. “Do you know who I am?” “Another April Fool’s joke,” I thought to myself as I moved my cursor up to click the Delete button. Then I glanced down and noticed the...

After decades of Pearl Harbor anniversaries, the family of Lewis Wagoner says this one will be more special than the rest. The Navy Seaman 2nd Class, one of the 429 onboard the USS Oklahoma who died during the Dec. 7, 1941, attack, is finally with his family in Kansas as his long-unidentified remains were tracked down and buried in October. “We were so grateful that at last, after 75 years, that our uncle… and all of the whole family was just so excited that finally his remains had been brought home to rest,” Lee Longaker, Wagoner’s niece, told FoxNews.com.

In the SF East Bay, the historic Mount Diablo beacon shines one night a year to honor Pearl Harbor Day. Terrific article about the annual event which can be seen across Northern California. LINK: http://sfbayappraisal.com/the-eye-of-diablo-shines-only-on-dec-7th

In the aftermath of the attacks on Pearl Harbour during World War Two stories emerged of sailors who were trapped in the sunken battleships, some even survived for weeks. Those who were trapped underwater banged continuously on the side of the ship so that anyone would hear them and come to their rescue. When the noises were first heard many thought it was just loose wreckage or part of the clean-up operation for the destroyed harbour. However the day after the attack, crewmen realised that there was an eerie banging noise coming from the foward hull of the USS West...

HMS Illustrious, the last of the Royal Navy’s Invincible-class carriers, has set sail from Portsmouth to meet her doom at a Turkish scrapyard. The British government chose to sell her for scrap in 2014, but Illustrious’ final journey nonetheless signals the end of an era during a low point for the shrinking Royal Navy. Illustrious was the second Invincible class between HMS Invincible and Ark Royal, scrapped in 2011 and 2013, respectively.

An exhibition at the Museum of World War II commemorates the 75th anniversary of the attack and humanizes a larger-than-life historic event.The Museum of World War II, a hidden gem in this leafy suburb outside Boston, has a new temporary exhibit through Jan. 7, 2017, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It features 100 of the museum’s best pieces on the subject, displayed in five large cases with the themes “Before the Attack,” “The Attack,” “The Response,” “Internment,” and “Remember Pearl Harbor.” Using maps, postcards, magazine photos, diaries, letters and a few traditional artifacts, the...

“We were interviewing people for his position. And he was one of the applicants. And so he showed up for the interview and he had Charlotte with him,” Jay Fellers, a human resource manager at Lowes, told CNN affiliate KRBC. Fellers said Charlotte — who wears her own Lowe’s vest while on duty — has been a hit with customers.

Pakistan is getting a new infantry rifle. In late November at the IDEAS-2016 Expo in Karachi, PakistanÂ’s state-run arsenal Pakistan Ordnance Factories signed a letter of understanding with the Czech small arms manufacturer ÄŚeskĂˇ Zbrojovka. This suggests that Pakistan and C.Z. are about to begin negotiations for Pakistan to adopt, and eventually begin license-production of, C.Z.Â’s 806 BREN 2 rifle.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is to become the first Japanese leader to visit Pearl Harbor, announcing Monday a trip to Hawaii this month for talks with US President Barack Obama. "I will visit Pearl Harbor" with Obama, he told reporters in comments broadcast live on television. Abe, who will be in Hawaii on December 26 and 27, will visit the site of the surprise Japanese attack on December 7, 1941, that began World War II in the Pacific.

War Dept. technical training film for bomber crews about evading flack on bombing runs. Goes into the specifics about the different types of flack patterns and how to adjust flight course to avoid them.

The custom-designed F-35 striker jets cost more than $100 million each ... It is a military showdown that could prove to be very embarrassing. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the world's most expensive weapon, is set to face off in upcoming testing with the Air Force's 40 year old A-10 Thunderbolt II... The F-35 is supposed to to take over the A-10's 40 year role of supporting ground forces with its titanium armor and powerful nose cannon. However, now experts believe that for many missions, the older aircraft may actually perform better - and say the two could even fly...

A call earlier this week between President-elect Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May — in which they agreed on the need for more NATO member states to commit two percent of their GDP on defense spending — brought European security debate back into the limelight. Although Trump gained notoriety in Europe for his skepticism of America’s alliances, there has been a surge of high-ranking politicians and government officials on both sides of the Atlantic saying that Europe is not doing enough for its defense. Earlier British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said that Europe should “step up to the...

Marine Corps combat veteran Stefan Meza says he literally put his life on the line to preserve and protect our freedoms. But after serving three tours of duty in two different wars, the aspiring police officer now believes his own rights were violated at Santa Rosa Junior College over something he said to a friend in class. Go Trump. It was those two words Meza said that got a sharp reaction from his yoga teacher who had been taking roll. "She told me not to make political comments in class and I said 'Yes, ma'am. It won't happen again. My...

The Navy's Littoral Combat Ship program is behind schedule, hundreds of millions over budget, and incapable of conducting most of the basic missions it was intended to carry out. Senators on Thursday said they wanted to know why. "Like so many major programs that preceded it, LCS's failure followed predictably from an inability to define and stabilize requirements, unrealistic initial cost estimates, and unreliable assessments of technical and integration risk, made worse by repeatedly buying ships and mission packages before proving they are effective and can be operated together," said Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., told Pentagon witnesses...

Since July 2012, the world has watched in horror as the once-beautiful and vibrant Syrian city of Aleppo has been transformed into a perpetual battlefield. Those killed in Aleppo, as well as throughout the rest of Syria during the civil war, are reported to be approximately 300,000. During the U.S.-led war in Iraq from 2003–11, one study reported that 405,000 Iraqis were killed directly and indirectly as a result of the war, and from 2001–15, an additional 91,991 people were killed due to war in Afghanistan, for a three-country total, over a 15-year period, of 796,991. As staggering as the...

Results by Rose et al. overturn a theory that in order for short-term memories to exist, neurons that represent that memory must be constantly active. Instead, the neural activity supporting that memory need only arise when the person trying to recall it consciously focuses his or her attention on the memory. Credit: N.S. Rose et al. =========================================================================================================================== It's clear that your working memory—which holds attention on small things of short-term importance—works, or you wouldn't be able to remember a new phone number long enough to dial it. Describing how it works, however—how the brain determines what to keep in mind,...

War is Boring ^ | December 1, 2016 | James Perry Stevenson and Pierre Sprey

The benefits the P-51 Mustang brought to aerial battles in World War II, particularly over Germany, are reasonably well known. The iconic fighter plane could fly higher, faster, farther and generate more kills per sortie than the U.S. Army Air Force’s aviation bureaucracy’s preferred P-47s or P-38s. However, the real P-51 Mustang story is just as much about the difficult gestation of a great new fighter as it is about the quashing of the drop tanks urgently needed to extend the range of existing fighters. Then there’s the guerilla tactics some officials unleashed in the corridors of power to overcome...

American astronaut Buzz Aldrin has been medically evacuated from the South Pole, according to the National Science Foundation and a private tourism group. Aldrin, 86, was visiting Antarctica when "his condition deteriorated," according to White Desert, which organizes luxury tourism trips to the icy continent. The group said Aldrin was evacuated on the first available flight out of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station to the McMurdo Station on the Antarctic coast under the care of a doctor with the U.S. Antarctic Program. He is in stable condition, White Desert said. The National Science Foundation provided the flight for Aldrin, who...

Between February and March 2016, Australian and French sailors in the Arabian Sea seized small shipsâ€ŠÂ—â€Šor dhowsâ€ŠÂ—â€Šsmuggling weapons, most likely to militants in Somalia and Yemen. These caches aboard the dhows included examples of one particularly rare firearm, the North Korean Type 73 machine gun. In November 2016, independent monitoring group Conflict Armament Research released a report detailing the captured weapons and their likely points of origins and destinations. According to the analysis, the shipments showed links between Iran and armed groups Tehran supports in the Gulf of Aden region.

Seem Mr. Trump correctly pointed out that folks in this country who feel the need to disrespect our flag in any form or fashion need to refrain from doing so, at least publicly. He is correct. Countries garner respect for defending their territory, their culture and their language, all of which make a country a country. We seem to be failing on all counts. In Mexico, if you trash their flag in public, you will be beaten and/or killed by the public who sees you doing so BEFORE the police can even get there. Or, in Thailand, do something to...

In the late 1980s, the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force decided to replace its aging 7.62-by-51-millimeter Howa Type 64 battle rifles. The JGSDF selected a lighter, modern assault rifleâ€ŠÂ—â€Šthe Howa Type 89â€ŠÂ—â€Šin 1989. ItÂ’s a solid weapon, but one with a few weird features. Its biggest problem, however, is that there arenÂ’t enough copies of it in existence.

Syrian Govt Forces Liberate about 40% of East Aleppo Syrian Army Liberates Northern Part of Aleppo City, Delivers Devastating Blow to Militants Reports from the east Aleppo | November 27th 2016 | Jihadists on the run

A metallic object discovered underwater off the coast of British Columbia and suspected of being a missing U.S. atomic bomb has now been identified as an industrial hunk of steel. The Royal Canadian Navy used an underwater robot to check out the object, sitting on the ocean floor in about eight metres of water south of Prince Rupert. Cmdr. Stephan Gresmak said military specialists determined the object was not an unexploded military munition. “It was safe and there was no danger,” said Gresmak who is with Joint Task Force Pacific. “It was determined to be a metal part of a...

In the mid-1970s, India began development on a totally new, advanced main battle tank that would satisfy the needs of the country’s Armored Corps. An impressive combination of firepower, armor protection and mobility, the tank was to be India’s first indigenously produced tank—and one of the best in the world. The service date for the tank, known as Arjun, was confidently set for 1985. Instead, the Arjun suffered a tortuously long development period spanning two centuries. The final result, introduced into the army twenty-six years later than originally planned, is a mess of a tank that not even the Indian...

The Indian government is proposing to export its Tejas light combat aircraftâ€ŠÂ—â€Šdeveloped by Hindustran Aeronautics Limitedâ€ŠÂ—â€Što other Asian states. New Delhi hopes that the indigenously developed fighterÂ’s relatively simple design and potentially low maintenance costs will be a selling point for the jet. But IndiaÂ’s prospects for selling the Â“newÂ” fighter are highly dubious.

9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed advocated destroying the US from within by abusing its liberal welfare and immigration laws (Wikimedia). Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: Destroy the US Through Immigration and Welfare Khalid Sheikh Mohammed may be the most successful terrorist mastermind in history. The Pakistani Islamic fundamentalist and al-Qaeda member was the brains behind the 9/11 attacks which killed 2,996 people and injured thousands more. In a groundbreaking new book called Enhanced Interrogation, CIA contractor James Mitchell provides insightful analysis into his relationship with Mohammed, and the ideology that he espoused. Perhaps the most interesting point gleaned from the book is...

Syrian army advance threatens to cleave eastern Aleppo Syrian government forces advanced deep into eastern Aleppo on Sunday amid a swift collapse of rebel defenses inside the divided northern city, threatening to cleave the opposition’s enclave between its northern and southern parts. The advance into the city’s Sakhour neighborhood brings the military within less than .6 miles of commanding a corridor in eastern Aleppo for the first time since rebels swept into the city in 2012 at the start of the Syrian civil war

Description: Rare and Unique Documented Colt U.S. Contract Artillery Model Single Action Revolver with Un-Numbered Replacement Frame Colt Artillery Model Single Action Army revolver with un-numbered replacement frame, barrel, cylinder and trigger guard. The Ordnance Department purchased 171 unnumbered replacement frames from Colt between 1874 and 1891. The left side of the frame is roll-stamped with the Colt three-date/two-line patent marking initially used by Colt in 1890 at approximately serial number 134,000. "A Study of the Colt Single Action Army Revolver" by Graham, Kopec and Moore states that the Army purchased six replacement frames from Colt on May 4, 1891....

A video released by the Al Rahman Legion, a Syrian rebel group based in eastern Damascus, shows a very unusual weaponâ€ŠÂ—â€Ša bespoke, truck-mounted cannon that wouldnÂ’t be out of place on a battlefield centuries ago. Somewhere within the Al Rahman Legion, a weaponsmith has applied old-time design principles and a bit of physics to bolster the groupÂ’s firepower. This is also the third homemade cannon depicted on video released by the group, as two others appeared in September 2015 and February 2016.

India's new fifth generation stealth fighter will be superior in key aspects to Russia's PAK FA T-50 from which it's derived, and will also have the added advantage of being able to fire the newest iteration of the fearsome BrahMos cruise missile, the BrahMos NG. And as the PAK FA is already superior to China's Chengdu J-20 low observable fighter, this means the Indian stealth jet will also be superior to the J-20. Indian media reports said India's as yet unnamed stealth fighter will include a total of 43 improvements over the PAK FA T-50, making it superior in many...

Fidel Castro has died at the age of 90, Cuban state television announced on Saturday, ending an era for the country and Latin America. Live Fidel Castro: world reacts to death of Cuban leader – live updates Brother Raul Castro announces on Cuban state television that controversial revolutionary leader has died at age of 90 Read more The revolutionary icon, one of the world’s best-known and most controversial leaders, survived countless US assassination attempts and premature obituaries, but in the end proved mortal after suffering a long battle with illness. The announcement was long expected, given the former president’s age...

Future Independence-class littoral combat ship USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10) successfully completed its acceptance trials Nov. 18. The trials consisted of a series of in-port and underway demonstrations for the Navy's Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV). Acceptance trials are the last significant milestone before delivery of the ship to the Navy. During the trials, the Navy conducted comprehensive tests of the LCS intended to demonstrate the performance of the propulsion plant, ship handling, and auxiliary systems.~SNIP~ Following delivery and commissioning in Galveston, Texas, LCS 10 will sail to California to be homeported in San Diego with sister ships USS...

Among those in the Marine Corps I taught and deployed with, Gen. (ret.) Jim Mattis is a legend. The quotes, the foxholes, the knife hands. Everyone has their favorite story. I once handed Mattis a Diet Coke out of a cooler at Quantico. A mundane act? Yes. But I’ve remembered it fondly for 12 years. He is Chaos, Mad Dog, and the warrior monk. But we should not add secretary of defense to that list. I have long thought of Mattis as a “break glass in case of emergency” type of leader. He was uniquely suited to his roles in...

Fort Wayne, IN-- Legendary Fort Wayne Komets broadcaster Bob Chase passed away at 2:40am ET Thursday, Nov. 24, 2016, at the age of 90. Chase completed 63 seasons as the voice of the Komets radio-rinkside last year after first arriving in Fort Wayne in 1953. Chase hailed from Negaunee, Michigan, where he was born January 22, 1926. He grew up in Marquette, Michigan and after high school joined the U.S. Navy where he served from 1943-1947. Upon his discharge from the Navy, Bob entered Northern Michigan University at Marquette and graduated in 1952. While in college, Bob started his radio...

Cmdr. Sarah DeGroot told the head of Amphibious Squadron 3, Capt. Homer Denius, on Monday that she was resigning as the Rushmore's CO. Three sources were unable to immediately specify why she'd taken this highly unusual and likely career-ending move.

World War II veteran Francis Robert "Frank" Royal made a fateful trip to the National Museum of World War II Aviation in Colorado Springs. "Having had a life long interest in flying, I had to come see what they had," he told Fox 31. Royal served as a squadron commander of the 39th Pursuit Squadron, 5th Army Air Corps in Papua New Guinea. He flew the P-38 Lockheed Lightning in combat. The Germans called it the fork-tailed devil, "It was a real godsend. From a pilot's standpoint it was great," Royal said. So there it was, in the museum. A...

BATH, Maine — The Bath-built USS Zumwalt, the first-in-class “stealth” destroyer that left the Bath shipyard on Sept. 7, broke down Monday night while passing through the Panama Canal and was towed by tugs through the locks toward the Pacific Ocean. The DDG 1000, the first of a class of three destroyers that cost an estimated $22 billion combined, “suffered an engineering casualty,” the Navy Times reported. The Zumwalt was towed through the locks to Rodman, a former U.S. military base.

A Fort Worth man faces up to 21 years in prison after he admitted lying about his military service to get a mortgage-free house and monthly veterans' benefits. Brandon Blackstone claimed to have received a Purple Heart when his Humvee drove over a bomb in Iraq and it exploded. "I was blown up while I was there," he said in a 2012 interview with NBCDFW. "I had to be medevaced home." He offered more details about the explosion in a YouTube video. "The one (Humvee) behind me got totally destroyed," he said. "I suffered a head injury and a head...